Life Cycle Inventory Analysis of Leafy Vegetables Grown in Two Types of Plant Factories

Shiina, Takeo; Hosokawa, Daijiro; Roy, Partha; Nakamura, Naohiko; Thammawong, M.; Orikasa, Takahiro

doi:10.17660/actahortic.2011.919.14

Cited by 31 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…This was primarily due to lighting, i.e., LED lighting systems employed, which accounted for the largest share of GHG emissions, although pumping for irrigation, heat and ventilation were also of substantial influence. These results concur with previous research and stipulations on the environmental (carbon footprint) of urban farming in indoor environments [8,14,28]. Similarly, [8] also found that the electricity mix employed may influence the results.…”

Section: Energysupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The results suggest that this could amount to roughly 0.27-0.74 kg CO 2 -eq per kg of edible plant material, depending on the growing medium and pot used. These results were slightly lower than the results for growing spinach as highlighted in [28] but are comparable with findings for producing conventional lettuce from urban farming [22] and hydroponic farming systems [8]. Thus, these findings illustrate that the vertical farming system can provide resource-efficient food production in urban environments.…”

Section: Final Productsupporting

confidence: 65%

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Environmental Assessment of an Urban Vertical Hydroponic Farming System in Sweden

2019

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With an expanding population and changing dynamics in global food markets, it is important to find solutions for more resilient food production methods closer to urban environments. Recently, vertical farming systems have emerged as a potential solution for urban farming. However, although there is an increasing body of literature reviewing the potential of urban and vertical farming systems, only a limited number of studies have reviewed the sustainability of these systems. The aim of this article was to understand the environmental impacts of vertical hydroponic farming in urban environments applied to a case study vertical hydroponic farm in Stockholm, Sweden. This was carried out by evaluating environmental performance using a life cycle perspective to assess the environmental impacts and comparing to potential scenarios for improvement options. The results suggest that important aspects for the vertical hydroponic system include the growing medium, pots, electricity demand, the transportation of raw materials and product deliveries. By replacing plastic pots with paper pots, large reductions in GHG emissions, acidification impacts, and abiotic resource depletion are possible. Replacing conventional gardening soil as the growing medium with coir also leads to large environmental impact reductions. However, in order to further reduce the impacts from the system, more resource-efficient steps will be needed to improve impacts from electricity demand, and there is potential to develop more symbiotic exchanges to employ urban wastes and by-products.

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Section: Energysupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Final Productsupporting

confidence: 65%

Environmental Assessment of an Urban Vertical Hydroponic Farming System in Sweden

2019

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“…Despite these indicators, the eco-efficiency assessment of indoor farming is still scarcely explored. In a preliminary Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) study [31], it was claimed that more than 60% of the CO 2 emissions in an indoor farm were related to the use of electricity associated with lighting supplied by HPS lamps. To our knowledge, however, no studies have to date, addressed the environmental footprint of indoor cultivation of leafy vegetables and herbs in response to different LED spectral compositions.…”

Section: The Eco-efficiency Of Led Farmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling Environmental Burdens of Indoor-Grown Vegetables and Herbs as Affected by Red and Blue LED Lighting

et al. 2019

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Notwithstanding that indoor farming is claimed to reduce the environmental pressures of food systems, electricity needs are elevated and mainly associated with lighting. To date, however, no studies have quantified the environmental and economic profile of Light Emitting Diodes (LED) lighting in indoor farming systems. The goal of this study is to quantify the effect of varying the red (R) and blue (B) LED spectral components (RB ratios of 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 4) on the eco-efficiency of indoor production of lettuce, chicory, rocket and sweet basil from a life cycle perspective. The functional unit of the assessment was 1 kg of harvested fresh plant edible product, and the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) method was employed for impact assessment. Even though most of the materials of the LED lamp and electronic elements were imported from long distances (14,400 km), electricity consumption was the largest contributor to the environmental impacts (with the LED lamps being the main electricity consumers, approximately 70%), apart from the resources use indicator, where the materials of the lamps and the mineral nutrients were also relevant. RB0.5 was the most energy-efficient light treatment but had the lowest eco-efficiency scores due to the lower crop yields.

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“…Therefore plant factories (or industrial crop production facilities) are expected to provide a stable source of chemically and biologically safe food [4–6] and controlled growth of transgenic plants [7–11]. In general, there are two types of plant factories: sunlight type (SL-type) and fully artificial light type (FAL-type) [12, 13]. The SL-type utilizes sunlight as the main light source, whereas the FAL-type only uses artificial light as the light source.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, the SL-type needs air exchange in the summer to avoid overheating [15], and during air exchange, it sometimes needs pesticides against the invasion of harmful insects. In contrast, the FAL-type can precisely control plant growth conditions such as light, temperature, humidity, and nutrients [6, 12, 13, 16]. Crops can be produced under stable and calculated conditions in any season and in any climate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of alternating red and blue light irradiation generated by light emitting diodes on the growth of leaf lettuce

Shimokawa

Tonooka

Matsumoto

et al. 2014

Preprint

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Because global climate change has made agricultural supply unstable, plant factories are expected to be a safe and stable means of food production. As the light source of a plant factory or controlled greenhouse, the light emitting diode (LED) is expected to solve cost problems and promote plant growth efficiently. In this study, we examined the light condition created by using monochromatic red and blue LEDs, to provide both simultaneous and alternating irradiation to leaf lettuce. The result was that simultaneous red and blue irradiation promoted plant growth more effectively than monochromatic and fluorescent light irradiation. Moreover, alternating red and blue light accelerated plant growth significantly even when the total light intensity per day was the same as with simultaneous irradiation. The fresh weight in altering irradiation was almost two times higher than with fluorescent light and about 1.6 times higher than with simultaneous irradiation. The growth-promoting effect of alternating irradiation of red and blue light was observed in different cultivars. From the results of experiments, we offer a novel plant growth method named "Shigyo Method", the core concept of which is the alternating irradiation of red and blue light.

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Life Cycle Inventory Analysis of Leafy Vegetables Grown in Two Types of Plant Factories

Cited by 31 publications

References 0 publications

Environmental Assessment of an Urban Vertical Hydroponic Farming System in Sweden

Environmental Assessment of an Urban Vertical Hydroponic Farming System in Sweden

Modelling Environmental Burdens of Indoor-Grown Vegetables and Herbs as Affected by Red and Blue LED Lighting

Effect of alternating red and blue light irradiation generated by light emitting diodes on the growth of leaf lettuce

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